


That little blue tree

by aerobesk



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Multi, Soulmates, soulmate!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 18:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1236307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerobesk/pseuds/aerobesk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmate AU/ You and your partners get matching tattoos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That little blue tree

Geoff wasn’t entirely sure when it had happened. It had been there one day when he had been grabbing the mail. He had studied the blue ink long and hard, trying to depict some kind of meaning or clues from it, but he had come up empty handed.

He had heard about it happening of course. A lot of people ended up with tattoos when the Fates chose their soulmates. Geoff had never really believed in that bullshit, and barely believed it now. The chances of him ending up with a tattoo were slim, but a tattoo like this? Obviously some kind of sick, practical joke.

Most tattoos were fairly small, and easy to miss if you weren’t looking. Lines, arrows, some hearts, and several tribal looking patterns were common occurrences. Geoff’s… wasn’t.

I mean, who ever heard of a soulmate tattoo of a blue tree with five delicately designed branches?

So he covered it up, tracing it out into other tattoos, creating sleeves of black ink to cover up the little tree. No one questioned it, and he didn’t talk about it.

—-

Ray had panicked when he had first woken up and seen his. Low on his back, directly above his waistband, it was fairly easy to hide, but that didn’t stop his sister from questioning the thing. He mentioned how he had always loved trees. She looked at him like he was crazy, but didn’t say anything.

He kept his shirt on at all costs. Swimming was out of the question, so illnesses were faked with people he knew, and the problem of not knowing how came up with those he didn’t. He wore his shirt to bed even in the summer, and used the stalls in the boy’s locker room.

People started calling him shy. They mentioned how he had closed up; his friends were upset that he didn’t spend as much time with them as he used to. His family wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, but that was solved when he moved away.

He never had the heart to cover the little thing in other tattoos. It was odd looking, sure, but he might as well keep his options open, right?

—-

Ryan never wore shorts for a reason that his friends would never understand. The little blue oak had decided to sprout on the side of his thigh, but he was taking no chances when it came to others seeing it. If he had to wear shorts (he did live in Austin, after all) he made sure they were a size too big and hung down to below his knees. Anyone who went into his apartment was impressed with the hefty collection of belts he had hanging in his bathroom.

He mostly ignored the thing, claiming to anyone who asked if he had a tattoo that he “Had made a bad decision and wasn’t about to show anyone his mistake.” He preferred not to talk about it at all, but when your friends are all ‘in love,’ the topic becomes inevitable.

But sometimes, at night, he would lay there, in the dark, re-finding the pattern of the branches over and over in the plaster above his head, wondering. He had done the research, and there was a reason that everyone had simple, red tattoos. It was because it symbolized the other person. The red meant love, of course. And the one, simple design added in made the tattoos mean “The one and only love of your life.”

Ryan could never get over the bafflement of the fact that the tree had branches.

—-

Michael hadn’t paid much attention to it. He had ignored it through his teen years, and covered it with pants and high socks, and as soon as he was old enough, got a nice forest tattooed around it. He left the little blue one though, making the new ones green. Might as well keep some of the hope, right?

He got more and more tattoos, eventually telling anyone who asked that the small tribal design under his wrist was the one. “The person on the other end of that must be very lucky,” his best friend once told him. Yeah. Right. Them.

He had never actually believed the stories, positive that his parents had gotten matching tattoos after getting together. But when the little thing had shown up, he’d done some research. Apparently, soulmate tattoos were always red unless they were special in some way. Most lesbian ones were almost tinted purple, and gay ones were tinted orange. He wasn’t entirely sure what blue meant, but a quick search revealed that it had never been seen before. Great.

So he ignored it, pushing through his life, dating a few girls, and rarely giving any thought to the forest around his ankle.

—-

Jack treasured the blue spot on his jaw. He showed the tree off proudly, despite how it clashed with his hair and how many questions he got. The thing was his lifeline, showing him that he was special and thought of even when he was down.

He looked up as much as he could, gaining a selection of books on the subject. He rarely found anything about tattoos with more that one point, and even then the ones he did find were three, four at most.

Apparently, one side of the point was you, and the other was your soulmate. So when people had two soulmates, the three of them had something with three points; a triangle, a star, a snowflake. Four was rare, but often a star.

Jack could see himself as the trunk of a tree. He could see himself holding up a group, being the base in a beautiful, loving relationship of six. He could see them sometimes, when he thought long and hard. A bright, happy blonde with a girly voice; a dark, mysterious brunette with wavy curls; god he could see them clearly.

Of course, he had about a million different images in his head when he thought of the branches on his face. He decided to let them be a surprise. Why come up with an image and then be disappointed?

He had started to let his hair grow out more as he applied for jobs, allowing his beard to cover the spot enough to get the job that he wanted. He never really thought of shaving it, only realizing that the tattoo was a little bit like bragging once he worked in an office with five guys who didn’t have tattoos, or at least hid them. So he kept the beard, falling into work easily, but keeping the spot of ink in mind.

—-

Gavin hid his as best he could. He wasn’t exactly self-conscious in the past, so he had no excuse to suddenly be reclusive about his body. His girlfriend at the time when it appeared had dumped him the moment she saw it. Hers was a heart on her chin. She hadn’t even left a note.

He was fit, so having the tree on his chest was a slight problem. People constantly asked about it if they saw it. (“Why’s it blue?” “Are you ok?” “Do you think they’re dead? Is that why the color’s weird?”) So many ideas had been put into his head that he didn’t even know what he thought about the odd thing anymore.

He had been ignoring it for so long that he had started placing bandages over it. Clean cloth was often pressed over the spot when he had his shirt off. He honestly wasn’t surprised when he finally got asked about it.

“Gav, why do you always wear that bandage? Come on dude, we’re swimming.”

Gavin smiled at Michael, watching Geoff and Barbara’s splash fight out of the corner of his eye.

“I’ve told you Michael; stitches and scars. Not attractive.”

“Oh yeah, and a giant white band-aid taped onto your hairless chest is so much better.”

“It’s not giant! It’s barely two inches!”

“On your body? Yeah man, that’s kinda big. I mean, it’s almost the size of your nose.”

Ray laughed at that, nudging Gavin’s shoulder lightly to show that he meant no offense. The three of them were sitting along the edge of the pool, watching as Jack hefted Caiti onto his shoulders and Geoff hoisted Barbara, getting ready for a game of chicken.

“You want to ask someone about covering up, what about Ray here? It’s 100 bloody degrees out here Ray; you’re going to get heat stroke.”

Ray laughed it off, watching Barbara fall off Geoff’s shoulders and splash into the water, taking the man down with her. Michael cheered along with Caiti, Lindsay, and Jack as the Aussie threw her hands into the air victoriously.

“I like my shirt dude, what can I say?”

Ryan chose that moment to walk up behind them, moving to sit down next to Ray as he interrupted Michael.

“If you like it so much then why don’t you marry it?”

The childish comment sent Gavin and Ray into a fit of laughter that alerted Geoff and Jack to the little group at the side of the pool. They exchanged a grin, the two of them diving down and swimming over, unnoticed by Ray and Gavin. Ryan and Michael glanced at them, keeping quiet when they realized what they were doing.

Gavin screamed as the fingertips brushed the bottoms of his feet, pulling his knees up to his chest and scooting backwards, while Ray squealed and jumped up to get away. Geoff and Jack came up already laughing at the reactions, watching Ryan and Michael laughing at the two’s misfortune for a moment. Geoff reached out and wrapped his hand around Michael’s wrist, yanking the younger boy into the pool and spinning him around, wrapping his arms around his neck in a weak and playful choke-hold. Jack grabbed Ryan around the neck, yanking him face first into the water.

Ryan coughed and spluttered as he went up for air, glaring at Jack who was watching Michael squirm against Geoff’s arm. Suddenly the brunette went limp and Geoff quickly released him, worried that he had hurt the other.

“Michael, you ok?”

Michael blinked at Geoff, reaching out and snatching his arm before Geoff could react. The older man yelped as his arm was taken captive, but stopped struggling as he realized that Michael was looking at his tattoos. Gavin and Ray had regained their composure, and Lindsay, Barbara, and Caiti had gone off to find drinks. The four other watched Michael trace the visible outline of a small blue tree among the black ink decorating his boss’ arm.

“That one,” he said, shoving Geoff’s arm awkwardly back into his own face. “Where did you get that one?”

Geoff blinked, glancing between Michael and his own arm. “I’ve had it for a long time.”

Apparently that was enough for Michael, who quickly let go, moving to get out of the pool, only stopped by Geoff’s shout and Ryan standing in front of him.

“Michael, why?”

Michael turned around, looking his boss in the eye. He shifted, trying not to draw attention to the forest on his leg, but Geoff had already figured it out.

“You have one too.” It wasn’t a question, and Michael shifted again, trying to ignore how itchy his leg felt.

“Have one what? Are you saying that you two…” Ryan didn’t finish his statement; he didn’t need to. Everyone in the group had heard about soulmate tattoos long enough to know what he was talking about.

Jack moved to Geoff’s side, holding out his hand. “Can I see it?”

He was curious about what the tattoo was, since he had spent enough time with Geoff to know the story behind most of them. Geoff placed his wrist into Jack’s hand, pointing to the shape. Jack froze, staring at it. He felt his cheeks start to heat a little and he quickly dropped Geoff’s arm, ducking underwater to hide his reddening face. He surfaced, scratching at his beard.

“That’s, uh, pretty cool looking. Blue tree, huh?”

Only Ryan registered the little gasp from behind him as Gavin, and turned to find the brit picking absentmindedly at the bandage on his chest as he listened to Geoff.

“Yeah, a blue tree. Of course, it’s a weird ass blue tree.” He didn’t want to get into a rant, but decided to check his theory. “I mean, what kind of mark has five branches?”

He got what he was looking for. Jack’s hand flew to his beard and Gavin had to stop himself from completely ripping of the bandage in surprise; Ryan scratched at the leg of his swim shorts and Ray quickly pulled the back of his shirt down a little more until it touched the ground. Michael shifted again, placing one foot on top of the other. Geoff shook his head, smiling and turning to greet Lindsay, Barbara, and Caiti as they arrived back with a cooler.

“Why’s everyone so quiet? Sounds like someone died,” Lindsay looked wearily at Geoff once she said that, doing a mental count of the boys to make sure that wasn’t actually what happened.

“Just doing some talking,” he turned pointedly to look at Jack. “Doing some planning.” He moved forward, hoisting himself out of the pool to grab some beers, tossing one to each of the guys and chucking a water bottle at Ray before hopping back into the water. He surfaced to find them all still staring at him.

“Come on guys, let’s go! Chicken, round two: Gavin and I V.S. Jack and Ray!”

Jack moved the fastest, setting his beer on the side of the pool and moving towards Ray. Ray sat there for a moment, hesitating before shrugging and pulling off his shirt, hopping into the water fully aware that Gavin and Michael both had their eyes fixed on his back. Jack picked him up, placing the smaller boy on his shoulders without even having to go under. Ray laughed, pin wheeling his arms as he almost fell off.

“Gavin, come on!” Gavin tore his eyes off Ray to look at Geoff, who was standing in front of him with a smile on his face and his arms held out. He stared for a moment, glancing to where Michael and Ryan were talking quietly before hopping out of the pool and running for his things. Geoff was halfway out of the pool to chase him down before he realized that the brit was coming back, his bandage gone and a slightly lighter patch of skin now visible, decorated with a small blue tree.

He took a flying leap into the pool, almost tackling Geoff in the process, surfacing to climb haphazardly onto the older man’s shoulders. Just as they were about to charge into battle, Gavin turned to Michael and Ryan.

“Why don’t you two get in on this?”

Michael glanced at him, looking worriedly at the grin spreading over Ryan’s face before the blond dove, causing Michael to squeak in a very Gavin-ish way when he felt a head between his legs and two arms around his thighs, pin wheeling his arms and grabbing onto Ryan’s head as he surfaced, the brunette now seated on his shoulders. Michael was about to complain when he felt one of Ryan’s hands leave his thigh, tracing over the blue tree in the forest of green tattoos.

“You ready to do this?”

Michael looked up, seeing the other four watching them, inviting smiles on their faces as they waited for the two to join them. Michael sighed, looking down at Ryan.

“As I’ll ever be.”

He wasn’t sure if the brunette had meant the fight itself, or something else, but either way the answer worked. The two of them charged in, Gavin managing to knock Michael down almost immediately with a backhand to the collarbone. He surfaced to find the brit with his arms in the air, shouting in victory. Geoff join in, giving the brit a high five as the two of them taunted Ray, who had apparently fallen off himself, but Jack and Ray just stood there, smiling at the others antics.

Michael smiled, turning when he felt an arm wrap around his shoulders. Ryan was grinning at him, squeezing his shoulder slightly before watching the others. Ray was back on Jack’s shoulders, having a shouting match with Gavin, while Jack laughed at them and Geoff attempted to keep Gavin on his shoulders.

Michael smiled at Ryan, silently nudging him to get going. The blond lifted him, charging into battle and immediately running straight into Gavin and Geoff, who barely managed to stay upright.

“ROUND TWO, BITCHES!”


End file.
